Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is a rule, which we adopted last year, to provide some certainty regarding the provision for ELS, which the Deputy will know comprises a number of elements, pre-existing commitments, demographic pressures, other pressures, known public service pay commitments and so on. Last year, the actual requirement, when the numbers were finally run, ended up being less than that and was closer to 2.5% so amounted to €1.6 billion. The Deputy is correct to say that the current inflationary environment will have an impact. That is why the assessment by my officials, and certainly at this point, is that the 3% we are providing and €2.2 billion will be needed. We do believe that the sum is adequate but we do not believe that we will be able to give some of that funding back for other measures.